King of the Goblins—Chapter 35

Fighting with a shield was much more difficult than I had anticipated.

First off, the damn thing got heavy after a few minutes. Althidon explained that the training shield was slightly heavier than a real one to help build strength. I didn’t have the time to build much strength. 

Second, that left me with only my right hand on the spear. So while I could still thrust, the amount of strength I could put into parries and other moves was greatly diminished. For that matter, so was my range. 

However, when one of Althidon’s students managed to slip by my poor spear thrust, I blocked his attack with my shield, then jabbed him in the shoulder with my practice spear. So it was a trade-off. Granted, that was my only successful block out of a dozen, but still. The potential was there.

“We might need to go back to just the spear,” Althidon said after an hour of training. “You’re horrible with the shield.”

“It’s better this way, though,” I said, hefting the heavy wooden shield. “I just need to keep practicing.”

“And your blood magic?” Althidon asked, leaning on his wooden sword.

I frowned. “Practicing that isn’t easy, although Silvy and the others let me try some things on them yesterday. I’ve figured out a way to crudely move people’s limbs. I made one of the goblin soldiers slap another one this morning.”

Althidon barked a laugh. “That’ll create a distraction. What else have you figured out?”

“Not a ton,” I said. “The primary thing I can do is control blood flow. So, I can stop a heart or make someone blush, or pull all the blood out of an arm so it doesn’t work any longer. Making muscles move is a new thing that I still need to practice.”

“Sounds like it’ll all come in handy,” Althidon said. “Alright, enough yapping. Let’s get back to work. You!” he barked, pointing at the nearest student, who jumped. “Spar with Aaron.”

I spent the next hour sparring against several young elven men, each of them trying to land blows on me with their practice swords. 

Using a shield also required me to split my focus; I had to concentrate on blocking their attacks, then my counterattack. Apparently I wasn’t the best at multitasking. Well, they both required a lot of concentration. It was something I would just have to get used to.

“I see one benefit of all this,” Althidon said. “You get to practice using blood magic to heal yourself.” He chuckled.

“Good point,” I said, and did exactly that. I felt through my body with blood magic, finding all my bruises, and forced them to heal. It took a few seconds, but after a moment I was as good as new, albeit tired.

“Keep doing that and I’ll make sure my boys keep beating you with practice swords,” Althidon said with a gruff laugh. “That way you get to practice both fighting and healing. You’ll be ready in no time, at this rate.”

I raised my shield and spear. “Alright, enough yapping.” 

I lunged at him, but even relaxing, he was quicker than me. He moved to the left in a flash and my spear struck only air. Before I could blink, the blade of his practice sword was against the side of my neck.

“You’ve got a ways to go before you can get the jump on me,” he said with a hint of a grin. “That was actually a decent attack, though. Try it again.”

Together, we went through his preferred method of practicing a move one hundred times before moving on. By the time we were done, my muscles felt like water and the shield seemed to weigh fifty pounds. My shirt was completely soaked with sweat.

“Well, at least you finally look like you put some effort into it,” Althidon said, giving his practice sword a twirl. “I’d said we’re done for the day, although I’d recommend you spar with that goblin automaton when you go home tonight.”

“Don’t worry, I plan on it,” I said, setting the butt of my spear on the ground and leaning on it. Althidon was fast, so sparring with that bastard was serious work. I think jogging a mile would have been easier.

“What is it?” I asked. Althidon was giving me a strange look, like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate.

He spoke slowly, as if choosing his words carefully. “There is a rumor I heard, more than a hundred years gone. I had completely forgotten about it, but our conversations about attacking overwhelming odds brought it back to the surface. I don’t want to speak words that are false, so I would advise asking Silvy about it.”

“About what?” I asked.

Althidon hesitated. “The spirits of the fallen.”

I frowned. I had heard Silvy mention that, back on my first day with her. She said something about not being able to trust them, but I didn’t even know what she was talking about.

“I’ll ask her,” I said. “What is it? Or, they?”

“When Ralcor took over, there was a slaughter,” Althidon said, his voice somber. “It’s always that way when a new goblin king takes over, but he was particularly nasty. Women, children, it didn’t matter to him. He killed anyone and everyone that was in his way. There was a rumor, many years gone, that the angry spirits of those people were still around, waiting for the day they could enact their revenge. Again, it was only a rumor. I would advise asking Silvy about it.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I will. As you’ve said, I could use all the help I can get. Although gods willing, with the help of my blood magic I’ll be okay.”

Althidon nodded and extended his hand. I shook it and thanked him again.

“You’re a faster learner than I’ve ever seen before,” Althidon said. “I can believe that you were sent by the gods. I believe in you, Aaron. Ah, perfect timing.” He said that last line while looking over my shoulder.

I turned and saw a tall elven man approaching.

“Taranath,” I said. “It’s good to see you.”

He gave me a slight bow as he approached. “I see our sword-master is working you hard, so that’s good.”

“Taranath here is the best man with a bow I’ve ever met,” Althidon said.

“You flatter me,” Taranath replied, waving the comment away with his hand. “The gods gave me a gift, it is true.”

I looked back and forth between the two men. “What is this about?”

“I’m going to join your fight,” Taranath said. “You need all the help you can get, Aaron. And we all agree that both of our economies would benefit from you replacing Ralcor. This helps both our people.” He shrugged. “So, here I am.”

“It’s not going to be the safest thing, you know,” I said. The last thing I wanted was for this man to die for me or for my cause. Although it suddenly dawned on me that having a good archer would help take care of my Ralcor problem, since magic wasn’t going to be reliable.

“Well, that’s why I have a bow,” he said. “No one will get within twenty feet of me.”

“You sound optimistic,” I said.

“That’s because you haven’t seen him use that thing,” Althidon quipped. He looked over at me, finally noting how sweat-soaked I was. “That’s a lot of sweat for some that hasn’t been working that hard.”

“What?” I spluttered. “I’ve been busting my—”

“Oh relax, I was just kidding around,” he said with a chuckle. “Go on, get some food and rest in you. And practice with your goblin automaton later. Take the shield, you need to learn that thing.”

“Thanks,” I said. I left the spear there but carried the shield with me. I still had a spear back at Silvy’s place to practice with, after all. At least with our training done for the day I could hold it down by my side instead of hefting the damn thing.

By now the path through Caelora was relatively familiar, so it didn’t take me long to find the tree I used for entry and exit. 

Several elven citizens recognized me by now, and a few of the women even gave me looks that I could only describe as cautiously interested. Not going to lie, I definitely had a few fleeting thoughts about bouncing several of the elven beauties on my lap, but I was solidly into goblin women now. The elven women were breathtakingly beautiful with their flawless bone structure and slender figures, but after experiencing the curves of the goblin women, nothing else would do.

Besides, I liked Zia and Silvy and Tressi. The last thing I wanted to do was mistreat any of them or be unfaithful. That wasn’t the kind of person I was.

I reached the tree and began descending the stairs. My running shoes looked incredibly out of place next to my elven clothing, but I was honestly grateful for their comfort. Last I checked no one had invented memory foam in this world, so I wasn’t looking forward to having boots made. 

Once on the ground, I kept the shadow stone in my hand and began walking to where I usually met Zia and Tressi. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind too much how sweaty I was. After some thought, I pulled my shirt off and tried to wring out some of the sweat, then draped it over my shoulder and continued walking.

An hour later, I found them plucking berries from a tall bush. I stood there and admired them for a moment, short and curvy as they were. Zia’s hair was a green so dark it was nearly black, while Tressi had auburn hair, rare among goblin women. Aside from that and their eye color, they were built similarly, with thick thighs and large breasts. I felt my pulse quicken as I watched their curves strain against their simple dresses.

“Oh! Hello, Aaron,” Tressi said when she noticed me. She walked up to me to hug me, but stopped when she noticed that I was sweaty. She scrunched her nose, then laughed and hugged me anyway. I made sure to keep the shield out of the way.

“I should learn how to use magic to clean you off,” Zia said to herself as she looked me up and down. She pursed her lips, then hugged me tightly. “I’m assuming from all the sweat that your training went well.”

“It did, yeah,” I said, hefting the shield for a moment. “This thing is heavy though. My arm feels like it’s going to fall off.”

Tressi was staring at my body, and her eyes went down to my crotch. With the cut of my pants, my erection was pretty obvious. She looked hungry.

“I really want to taste you again,” Tressi said. “I don’t want a mouthful of sweat, though. You need a bath.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry. Soon, we’ll be able to do that all we want.”

“What, take baths?” She raised an eyebrow.

“That too!” I said. “But I was referring to sex.”

“And we look forward to those days,” Zia said, looping her arm through mine. “Let’s go back and see Silvy.”

“Speaking of sex, I learned something interesting recently from Silvy,” I said as we slowly walked towards the entrance to the goblin city.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Zia asked.

I tried to think of how to phrase it. “I learned what goblin women do for birth control.”

“Birth control?” Tressi asked.

“How you have sex without getting pregnant,” I clarified.

Zia looked up at me as if she wasn’t quite following me. I reached down, grabbed her ass, and gave it a hefty squeeze.

“Oh, that,” she said. “You say that like it’s not an ordinary thing. Did women not do that back in your world?”

“Not nearly so often,” I said. 

“Really?” Tressi asked. “I find that so strange. It’s so intimate. I can’t wait until I can feel you cum in my ass.” She said it casually, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

“Do you like to start with vaginal sex, and then finish with anal?” I asked.

Tressi and Zia looked at each other, then at me. “Of course,” Zia said. “How else would we do it?”

I looked behind Zia to catch a glimpse of how the light fabric of her dress laid across her bubble butt and let out a happy sigh. Only a handful more days, I reminded myself.